Evolve Wiki:Editing Policy
This is an article for general policies for editing on Evolve Wiki, and should be considered a guide for adding or editing content on the site. See the sections below for basic policies and standards. Evolve Wiki Standards :Editing is simple, good editing is never simple. Wikis have been around for a long time, and are by now generally well understood. Evolve Wiki follows the wiki culture, standards and policies of Wikia, and for the most part of Wikipedia itself. We want to make editing as easy, and simple, as possible. However, the need for consistency and given the difficulties of large scale collaborative works, good editing is not always simple. The following are tips and official policy at Evolve Wiki, for editing a good page in a way that works smoothly with other contributors. Policies The following reflect current policy for only a subset of what can be edited or changed on the wiki. Please see other policy articles for more information. For standards on editing style see Manual of Style. Removing content Content should generally not be removed. Usually there is very little reason to actually remove wiki content, like text, images, files, videos, or whole pages themselves. At the very least, material may be referenced by outside sources, or maybe useful in a larger scope is important. Keeping content on a wiki is a good idea in general and is a part of what a wiki is. When there are large proposed deletions or replacements, it may be best to suggest changes in a discussion or their talk page, lest the original author be discouraged from posting again. Even if you delete something that's just plain false, odds are that it got there because someone believed it was true, so preserve a comment to inform later editors that it is, in fact false. Alternatives to removing text * Rephrasing * Providing new and/or more accurate section or summary, while keeping the content * Moving text within an article, perhaps to a 'Comments, 'Speculation' or 'Analysis' section * Moving text to another article (existing or new) * Adding more of what you think is important to make an article more balanced * Making a note about what occurred in the past, while updating a content General policy * Content should instead be moved, or reincorporated, marked as historical, or noted for past differences. * Pages should instead be alternatively renamed or moved, such as adding text in parentheses to disambiguate. * Images and videos should generally be left alone, and not renamed. Can be updated with a new image, or have a new file uploaded with a different name. * A 'request for citation' should be placed, in lieu of removing unknown data, and appropriate time allowed for response. * Talk page discussion about removal or change is encouraged, and allows others to participate. * Page Edit notes must be left when making significant changes, even if was already discussed elsewhere. Changes without reference or an edit note might often be reverted by wiki patrollers. * Pages or sections that are actually DNP, duplicate, or subsumed elsewhere, can have a 'requested to be deleted' made by placing one of the deletion templates. Reasons for removing content * Copyright violations and NDA (non-disclosure) types of content. * Duplication * Nonsense, or other vandalism like content. * Off-topic, inappropriate, or other DNP (do not post) types of content. * When accuracy of controversial information, and source citations were not completed. Removing vandalism and DNP material *''Always'' make an edit note when making any substantive change, especially for removal. *Prefer using "undo", rather then trying to edit by hand. *Its OK to use successive "undos" to get back to the original correct version, so long as no valid content is removed. *For patrollers, prefer use "revert" if changes and author were only DNP type material. *Otherwise just remove it, and say "removed vandalism" in the edit comment field. See Evolve_Wiki:Vandalism. Editing and reformatting talk pages For additional guidelines on editing and reformatting talk pages, see Evolve_Wiki:Talk page guidelines. Disruptive editing Disruptive editing is a pattern of edits, and sometimes extend over a considerable period of time or number of articles, that has the effect of * disrupting progress toward improving an article, or * disrupting progress toward the fundamental project of building Evolve Wiki. Disruptive editing is frowned upon and will result in remedial action, up to and including an indefinite ban from Evolve Wiki. See also *The Evolve Wiki deletion policy *Manual of Style External links *Wikia community central - Home for Wikia community, where discover tips and tricks, and general issues in editing on a Wikia based wikis. *Wikipedia Policies - We have our own guidelines but follow same general principles. Is a good source about editing policy, trials and tribulations, for a huge project. *WikiMedia's MediaWiki site - Is useful for the reading about the Wiki you are editing wiki pages on.